NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE

Department of Mechanical Engineering

ME 2134-Fluid Mechanics I (2017)

(Tutorial Sheet 1)

(1) A rectangular tank measuring 1.5 m x 1.5 m at the base is filled with oil (specific
gravity 0.8) up to a height of 2.0 m as shown in the figure. Find the force acting on the
internal wall (A) of the tank when acceleration is (a) 5 m/s2 vertically upward and (b) 5
m/s2 vertically downward. (Ans: (a) 339.44 kN (b) 315.45 kN)

Patm=101.3 kN/m2

A 2m

1.5 m

(2) A right angle glass tube (ABC), which is open at A and closed at C, is filled with
water as shown in the figure. If A is open to the atmosphere and the tube is accelerated
from left to right at ax=4 m/s2, determine the pressure difference between point B and C
inside the tube? What should the tube acceleration be so that the pressure at C becomes
atmospheric? Under this condition, what is the pressure difference between B and C?
(Ans: pb-pc=2 kN/m2, a=5.886 m/s2, pb-pc=2.94 kN/m2)

300 ax

B C
500

1
(3) A water truck was cruising along a straight highway to a destination in the outback.
The water tank measures 2.0 m (high) x 2.0 m (wide) x 8.0 m (long) and was filled with
water up to a height of 1.8 m (Figure below). During the journey, a freak wind storm
blew the lid off the top of the tank leaving a 2.0 m wide gap opened to the atmosphere.
Sensing that something was amiss, the driver stepped on the brake paddle to decelerate
the truck to a stop. When he got out of the truck to check for damages, he found that 15
% of the water had also spilled on the road. Assume the dimension of the opening at the
top of the tank measures 2 m x 2 m (same width as the tank).

(a) Determine the maximum deceleration that the truck driver had applied to the
brake? (Ans: -8.760 m/s2)

(b) What is the total force acting on the inner vertical surface AB of the water tank
during the deceleration? Note: You need to include contribution from
atmospheric pressure. (Ans: 619.728 kN)

Without bothering to look for the missing lid, the driver went back to the truck and
continued his journey by accelerating the truck at 2 m/s2 to a constant cruising speed. By
his action, has the driver unknowingly spilled the water out of the tank due to his
acceleration? (Ans: water spilled out since the minimum acceleration to spill is 1.505
m/s2)

State all the assumptions made. You may use density of water = 1000 kg/m 3 and
atmospheric pressure = 101.32 kN/m2

8.0 m

2.0 m 5.0 m

D A

2.0 m 1.8 m Water

FLUIDS PTE LTD
C B

2
(4) A cylindrical tank with a diameter of 0.30 m and a height of 0.50 m is 80% (by
volume) filled with Castro oil of specific gravity 0.96 as shown in the figure below. The
top of the tank has a circular opening (centrally located) with a diameter of 0.25 m. The
tank is rotated about its centre at a constant angular velocity () until a rigid body
rotation is reached (a) If the rotation of the tank is such that oil is just about to spill out
from the top opening of the tank, determine the angular velocity () of the tank? (b) If
the angular velocity determined from part (a) is increased by 10%, how much of the oil
(in volume) will be lost due to spillage? ( Ans: (a) =19.016 rad/s (b) 1.472×19-3 m3)

0.25
m

0.50 m

B A
0.30 m

(5) An open container of diameter (d) is attached to a rod of length (D). The container,
which is half full of a liquid of density () is rotating at an angular velocity () about a
vertical axis. After reaching a steady state, the fluid moves as if “frozen” in the container
as shown in the figure on the right. Prove that the height of the water level “h” is related
to the angular velocity () by the following expression:

2D2  
2
 2d  d  
h    
2g  D D 


D d

3
 (6) A large tank containing water of constant density 1000 kg/m3 is fixed to a cart with
frictionless wheels as shown in Figure (a) below. Located 1.0 m below the water’s free
surface is a smoothly contoured nozzle of 20 mm diameter, where jet of water is issued
horizontally with a velocity V. The water level in the tank is kept constant by
continuously injecting water vertically through a 50 mm diameter downpipe above the
top of the tank. The horizontal water jet from the nozzle impinges on a deflector which
redirects the water jet through an angle of 55o. The deflector is mounted rigidly on a
separate cart with frictionless wheels, and is held stationary by a spring (A) connected to
a sidewall. The cart with the water tank is held stationary by spring (B) attached to
another wall.

(a) Determine the velocity of water (U) from the downpipe in order to maintain
constant height of water in the tank.
(b) Determine the force exerted by spring A to keep the cart carrying the deflector
stationary.
(c) Determine the force exerted by spring B to keep the cart carrying the water tank
stationary.
(d) If the water tank, its content and the cart weigh 2.5 kN, what is the total vertical
force exerted by the floor on each of the four wheels of the cart carrying the tank?
(e) If the deflector and the cart weigh 50 N, what is the total vertical force exerted by
the floor on each of the four wheels of the cart carrying the deflector?
(f) If spring A is now attached to the cart carrying the water tank as shown in Fig (b)
below, and the rest remains the same, what is the new force exerted by Spring A
and Spring B in order to keep both the carts stationary.
Note: You may assume the flow to be inviscid and the deflector to be frictionless. You
may further assume the effect of gravity on the water jet leaving the tank to be negligible
(i.e. the water jet remains horizontal).

(a) U=0.709 m/s, (b) 2.627 N (compression), (c) 6.161 N (compression), (d) 625.247 N
(each wheel), (e) 13.762 N (each wheel), (f) Spring A=2.627 N and Spring B=3.534 N

4
 Q m3/s

50 mm Downpipe

U m/s

g
Water jet 55o
1.0 m
20 mm
Water
Wall V Wall (a)
Deflector
=1000 kg/m3
B A

Ground
Spring Wheel trolley Spring

Q m3/s

50 mm Downpipe

U m/s
Figure 4
g
Water jet 55o
1.0 m
20 mm
Water (b)
Wall V Wall
Deflector
=1000 kg/m 3
B A

Ground
Spring New location of Spring B

5
(7) Water is moving steadily to the atmosphere through a double exit elbow for which
the inlet velocity is V1=5.0 m/s. The inside volume of the elbow is 1.0 m3. Find the
vertical and horizontal forces acting on the elbow due to moving water, assuming V2=10
m/s. (Ans: Rx = 9360.6N, Ry=  7718.3N)

V1=5 m/s

p1=25 kPa
0.5 m gauge

y
g
x
P2
V2=10 m/s 0.18 m

0.2 m
V3, p3
o
45

(8) A jet of water from a nozzle impinges on one of the blades of a specially designed
water turbine as shown in the figure below. Assuming that the water jet has a
velocity of 25 m/s and a diameter of 40 mm, find (a) the component of the forcing
acting on the blade in the x-direction of the jet, and (b) the component of the force in
the y-direction. What is the magnitude and direction of the resultant force exerted on
the blade?
(Ans: Rx = 1.117 kN, Ry = 0.712 kN, Resultant force=1.324 kN at 32.5o to the x-
direction)
D
Blade
Nozzle =115o

Plan view

6
 (9) There is an ongoing research project in the Fluid Mechanics Laboratory at NUS to
investigate the aerodynamics of insect flight. As part of this project, an experiment is
conducted in a water channel on a simplified two-dimensional NACA 0012 wing to study
the effect of wing pitching (or oscillating) on the generation of lift and thrust. The wing
has a chord length (distance between the leading and trailing edge of the wing) of c=60
mm, and is pitching about an axis c/4 (15 mm) from the leading edge (see Figure below).
Determine the thrust (T) per unit length of the wing if the upstream and downstream
pressures are equal and the velocity profiles are as shown below. You may assume that
the density of water () to be 1000 kg/m3. (Ans: 0.133 N)
Uo=100 mm/s

Uo=100 mm/s

20
oscillating
Umax = 150 mm/s

oscillating
15 20

c= 60

Velocity
Profile

(10) A lawn sprinkler with two nozzles of 5 mm diameter each at 200 mm and 150 mm
radii is connected to a tap capable of delivering volume flowrate of 10-4 m3/s. If the
water is discharged as shown in the figure below, what is the angular velocity () of the
sprinkler assuming that the friction in the bearing and seal are negligible, and the
sprinkler is designed to rotate in a horizontal plane? If the sprinkler is held stationary by
hand, what is the torque exerted by the sprinkler on the hand? (Ans: (a) 108.4 rpm (b)
0.0355 Nm).

30o


150 mm 200 mm
45o